Sunday, February 9, 2014

Midwinter Beach Party

It is that time of year, my friends. That drizzly, dismal, dark, cold, dank, dreary time of year, when all outdoor activities have to be limited to an hour or less due to frozen little fingers and toes. And let's be honest, there is only so many math games,

Sometimes we bundle up and go to the park, or to the beach playground to swing,

which we love at all times of the year,

and never tire of,

and sometimes we go in search of a really deep, cold puddle to freeze our feet in as we puddle dance.

But we can't do that for long before we are back in the house, walking around in circles, sometimes bumping into furniture, or each other, until we are all ready to make this face.

And then we know that the time has come to crank up the thermostat, fill a bucket with sand, cut up a melon, set out the chips and salsa, and party like it is the middle of sweet, hot August.
We turned on a video of a beach, and spent an hour and a half enjoying our friends.

The sand was a huge hit, but it made an unbelievable mess. What is it about having sand indoors that immediately invites children to create an artificial beach the size of a real beach?

We were glad Juliana and Owen could come, even though their new baby was a week late by January 31, when we had our party. He has since been born, healthy and huge.

Jared and Richie couldn't figure out why they had their swimsuits on if they weren't going to get wet, so we created an artificial lake beach. It's not too crowded in here, right?

This was the kickoff to summer week in our house, in spite of the lowest temperatures of the winter outside. Our festivities included a lot of books about summer, and culminated with a trip to a real indoor pool on Friday. Happy midwinter summer!